Lamborghini Gallardo


Lamborghini Gallardo E-Gear Coupe


Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder

lamborghini history

As with many great passions the history of Lamborghini is the story of one man’s all consuming passion to produce the ‘perfect car’. Ferruccio Lamborghini was born on the 28th April 1916 in a small village called Renazzo, near Bologna , Italy. The family came from a fairly humble farming background but the young Renazzo did not show any interest in carrying on the family business.

It became clear that his passion was for all things technical. Lamborghini’s quest for a technical education took him to Bologna, before he joined the Italian Army. It was during WWII that Lamborghini was captured by the Allied Forces and became a prisoner of war on the Island of Rhodes. Remarkably his talent for all things mechanical resulted in him being put in charge of the maintenance of British Military Vehicles on the island despite his status as a prisoner of war.

After the war was over Lamborghini returned home, needing to find a way to make a living. Using skills he had learnt during the war and his farming background he started to buy military machinery and convert them in to tractor’s. In post war Italy the need for agricultural machinery was great and the business soon proved to be a success. He invested his money in the business and established a factory near his home town of Renazzo, which also produced air conditioning and heating units.

Over the following years Lamborghini’s business generated a substantial personal fortune which allowed him to indulge his passion for luxury sports cars. Legend has it that after buying a Ferrari and being dissatisfied by the build quality that Lamborghini took the fateful decision to start building his own cars.

By 1964 the first cars started leaving the factory, each model was an expression of Lamborghini’s total commitment to perfection in terms of quality and style. From the early 1960’s till 1972 the company did well establishing a world wide reputation for the production of exotic supercars.

The oil crisis of 1972 and the general world recession however had a near catastrophic effect on the fortunes of the company. Lamborghini was forced to sell 51% of the company and then a year later the other 49% to business men who did not share his vision for the company or who had the willingness to invest the money needed to develop new cars. These problems were made worse when a major contract with BMW was cancelled in 1978. The financial situation was so serious in the late seventies and early eighties that the company was placed into receivership by the Italian courts. After a very difficult period the courts finally sold the company to the Mimran family who had made their fortune in the food industry. Fortunately, the family were famous for their love of supercars and a programme of investment in both plant and personnel was established.

Lamborghini went from strength to strength during the mid eighties, but ironically the need to sustain the growth meant that the Mimran family could no longer finance the required level of investment and a new partner was sought. The short term answer was a deal with Chryslar, but during the following years the control of the company was again to change a number of times. On the 24th of July 1998 the company finally came into the ownership of Audi an organisation with the financial power and engineering excellence to ensure a positive future for the great marque.

Ferruccio Lamborghini died at the age of 76 on 20 February 1993.

Lamborghini Gallardo